Hard truths
by nattbarn
Summary: Kaldur died in the desert. A bit of the aftermath.


Disclaimer: I don't own Young Justice

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><p><em>"If you had done as we said, he wouldn't be dead!"<em>

_"There were three of you! You could have managed it if you'd tried!"_

_"Superboy was being tortured, you jerk!"_

_"Superboy's invulnerable! He's Superman's clone! He'd have been fine!"_

_"I... don't know if..."_

_"It's her fault! She just left him when she could have brought him to the plane in, like, three seconds!"_

_"Obviously, it was a mistake, but-"_

_"But! No! She-"  
><em>

"Enough!" Black Canary slammed the door to the kitchen open, her voice making every little thing in the room to tremble. "Exactly. What. Do you five think you're doing?"

Her tone didn't leave room for argument, and she didn't give them the time to try and answer. She merely looked at each of them, M'gann in tears, Artemis angry at everyone, Superboy confused and upset, Kid Flash in angry grief, Robin the same.

"I'll tell you what you are doing," she narrowed her eyes at them, waiting until they shifted uncomfortably beneath her gaze. "You are wasting your time with_ idiotic _accusations."

In a different situation the way their eyes widened, and mouths fell open would have been hysterical, the kind of situation where she'd have desperatly wished for a camera.

"Idio-" KF began, voice loud and choked.

Black Canary didn't let him finish. "We thought you were mature enough to sort it out among yourself. After listening to this for days, I'd say we were wrong."

"Wrong?" Artemis said, tensing, so ready to argue. She didn't get the chance either.

"Can any of you guarantee that Kaldur would be alive, if M'gann had chosen to bring him back to the plane? In your own words, Robin, he was unstable for a long time before he died," Black Canary demanded.

"It was, but-" was all he got out, before she continued.

"Can any of you guarantee that Superboy would be fine? He's not Superman, he doesn't have all of Superman's strenght and powers."

Superboy nodded reluctantly. "It hurt. A lot."

"Can any of you guarantee that this, Psimon, wouldn't have done more damage to him?" she took a breath, and waited.

"M'gann defeated him," KF said. "He wasn't that much trouble."

"Actually, he was," M'gann muttered, barely audible. "If Superboy hadn't been there..."

"Exactly," Black Canary said flatly. "He took six month's worth of memories from all of you, at once. Your telepath, the one with training and defences, thought he was tough to beat. Again, can you guarantee Superboy would have been fine?"

They five exchanged glances, before chorusing a weak 'no'.

Then. "Can you guarantee that Kaldur would still be dead if M'gann had helped him first?" Superboy challenged, and the other four turned to her, angry all over again.

"No," Black Canary said, letting it sink in. "Pay attention to what I'm going to tell you now. IN this business, people are going to die. Maybe it's someone you've only heard of. Maybe it's someone you know. Maybe it's you."

They twitched. Good.

"This time it was your friend, team mate, and leader," Black Canary looked at them, one at the time. "He was the first of you to die. Hopefully, but most likely not, the only one of you. If you're going to keep doing this, you need to be skilled, careful and lucky, every single time you go out there. Your opponent only needs to be lucky once."

"But-" M'gann spoke up, then stopped, as if she had no idea what to say.

"No;" Black Canary said. "Questions and arguments will wait until I am done talking. Got that?"

Muttered 'yes'es from all of them.

"Sometimes there is a right choice and a wrong one," she continued, making sure her tone was firm. "Sometimes there are choices that all look good, and sometimes they all look bad. Sometimes, you just have to pick one, and go with it."

"We already know this," Robin said, and shut his mouth just as quickly, understanding dawning on him.

"Yet you're still fighting like children," Black Canary replied harshly. "When you are in that situation, you have to pick what you think is best, and hope. Sometimes, it's going to be okay. Sometimes, it's not. And when that happens, because so help you, it _will_, you _will_ make a mistake and someone will get hurt. Someone will die."

The team stared at her, angry and hurting from the loss of their team mate and words they don't want to hear right now, and she stared right back, not giving an inch.

"When that happens, you will want support. You'll need it. That's part of the reason people work in teams," she sighed. "I'm not going to tell you what the right choice would have been, back there. Make up your own minds."

"But, if you can't deal with the fact that people die in this business, if you can't handle the fact that sometimes it will be because someone makes a mistake, honest or stupid, if you can't deal without screaming blame at someone... get out."

That shocked them. All of them straightened, muscles tense, staring.

"Hang up your costume, go home and have a normal life," Black Canary finished. "This is not the life for you," she turned back to the door, and walked out, but not before looking over her shoulder. "Now, deal with this like the team you insist on being."

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><p>"Uhmm," Wally said, eyeing the rest of the team carefully.<p>

None of them were stupid. Stupid people generally didn't last long as superheroes. They rarely needed to be told things twice.

It was bitter that this was one instance where they'd need to be told twice.

"I'm sorry," M'gann blurted out, looking teary eyed again. "I thought I did the right thing."

"Maybe if we'd started moving Kaldur as soon as we'd found him," Robin said weakly.

"Maybe if we had remembered him sooner," Artemis said flatly.

"I'm sorry too," Wally said, to the room in general.

"Yeah," Superboy said.

"Yeah," Robin sat down, head in hands. "How about... we go train or something?"

"...Not a good idea," Artemis looked at her hands. "Don't train with others when angry, it makes for bad fights."

"TV?" Superboy and M'gann chorused.

"... I'm for TV," Wally agreed.

"I have cookies?" M'gann said quietly.

"Bring 'em," Artemis said, and grabbed the remote. "I choose."

"Hey!"


End file.
